There are many different reasons people fall in love with Paris: the art and culture; the beauty and history; the fashion and femme fatales. Moi? I can think of no bigger, better, more divine seductress than the chocolate.

Cocoa is the food of the gods, and the French unabashedly worship at its altar. For nearly four centuries, they’ve been evolving the humble brown cacao seed into something decadent, transporting and otherworldly. You can get chocolate in liquid, molten or frozen form. Sculpted into a stiletto—or a squirrel.

As a single-origin bar (tablette) or a decadent box (un ballotin) of many splendored flavors. In fact, in Paris you can toss a truffle in nearly any direction and hit a chocolatier. But don’t leave it to fate. Get yourself to any of these 11 chocolatiers for an unforgettable Parisian experience.

photos courtesy of laduree.fr & chocolatezoom.com

There are many ways to experience Paris, but one of the more decadent ones is, simply, to follow the chocolate. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing just that when I tagged along on Context Tour’s “Chocolate Walk,” a chocoholic’s dream that took me to many of the Left Bank’s most delicious (and gastronomically prestigious) addresses.

We began the tour in front of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, where our docent, Camille Labro, pulled an actual cocoa pod (which she had recently brought from Brazil) out of her handbag and gave us a quick rundown on the plant’s important role in world history. Over the next few hours, we would learn the ins-and-outs of chocolate production and consumption, from its historical roots in South America to its modern incarnations in Paris and throughout the world. Continue Reading »